Chodang-dong café in Gangneung with mugwort injeolmi gateau: Cafe Giwa

I ordered the mugwort injeolmi gateau, the Giwa black latte, the pink flower latte, and Dutch coffee.

Cafe Giwa hours, closing day and parking

⏰️ Hours are 10:00–21:00, last order at 20:30. Closed Wednesdays.

🅿️ The private parking lot is free and spacious~ no parking stress at all👍

Hand-drip coffee, separate men's/women's restrooms, a baby chair, group seating, takeout, reservations, and Wi-Fi are all available. 🐕 Pets are welcome too, but inside and outside — including the garden — you must use a pet stroller or carrier/cage❗️

A 130-year-old hanok and its green garden

I visited a hanok café in Chodang-dong, Gangneung, over the weekend~😆 Being a hanok café it has this serene, timeworn feel ✔️ and the garden is packed with colorful, lush plants — good enough to snag a killer photo📸!

Cafe Giwa, with its 130-year-old hanok and garden

Isn't it just gorgeous! 🤩 After always going to those huge chain cafés, it was nice to feel some real hanok atmosphere again😇

There are outdoor tables too, but the flowers were so fragrant there were quite a few 🐝 bees around, so I came back inside! The weather was cool though~ sitting outside around sunset with a drink would be lovely. If you're eating outside, definitely bring bug spray~!

⭐️Even the photo spots are perfect⭐️

Inside Cafe Giwa: quiet seating and vintage décor

Inside Cafe Giwa, time feels like it's stopped..💬

Once you step inside, under the wooden rafters there are vintage furniture pieces and old props scattered around, frozen in time — genuinely fun to browse! (There's a Naver review event running — a handmade cookie gift!)

They also sell coffee beans! If it suits your taste, you can buy some to take home👍

✔️There are blankets, plenty of space, and lots of tables, so if you're looking for a café for dates, family gatherings, or any kind of group meetup, this place is a total recommendation! It's very quiet, so it's great for actually talking.

The restrooms are clean too, and the women's restroom is split into two separate stalls. Those old coffee props I mentioned! If you look closely you'll know exactly what they were used for❗️ and I really wanted to take them home~ a real treasure trove of vintage props! The table decorations in between are made with fresh flowers too~👍 looks like they brought them straight in from outside🌸🌼🌺

Cafe Giwa signature drinks and dessert menu

Looks like Cafe Giwa roasts their own beans! You can just feel it from how the description reads~

Cafe Giwa desserts🍰 gateau chocolat / mugwort injeolmi (rice cake) gateau / green tea triangle / plain milk roll cake / tiramisu roll cake / mugwort injeolmi toast / cookies

What we ordered: mugwort injeolmi gateau and lattes

• ✔️Giwa black latte ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
• ✔️Pink flower latte ⭐️⭐️⭐️ decent
• ✔️Dutch coffee ⭐️⭐️⭐️ decent
• ✔️Mugwort injeolmi gateau ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

☕️The Giwa black latte is a latte with nutty grain milk, a heavy espresso base, and Cafe Giwa's own black sesame cream. ➡️ The black sesame cream latte was nutty and smooth and just so good! Nicely balanced sweetness — I'd recommend this as Cafe Giwa's signature drink❗️

☕️The pink flower latte is a soft, sweet latte blending strawberry milk with the gentle depth of Dutch coffee, like a spring flower. ➡️ Layer by layer, the milk had a slight ✨️coconut flavor that was a nice surprise✨️

☕️The Dutch coffee ➡️ wasn't nutty, more on the acidic side, clean-tasting — the kind of strong coffee flavor that felt like it might keep me up all night just from a sip :)

🍰Round of applause for the mugwort injeolmi gateau!👏👍 It's a mugwort gateau + chocolate + injeolmi (rice cake) cream combo, and apparently it's ⭐️the café's most popular dessert⭐️

The mugwort gateau is so good.

Firm and chewy and not too sweet — good enough that I want to try making it myself!! The chocolate part is really sweet, so if you're after something on the sweeter side, this will satisfy you! For me it was almost too sweet, so the mugwort sponge and injeolmi cream alone were already an eye-opener~ The injeolmi cream isn't overpowering, so feel free to try it without hesitation!

If you're looking for a café near Chodang-dong while traveling in Gangneung, I recommend Cafe Giwa😊 ✔️It's quiet and ✔️the outdoor scenery is pretty enough to take photos! The drinks are varied too — coffee, tea, ade — and all solid~ Especially the mugwort injeolmi gateau, highly recommend👍👍